The present invention relates to an electron beam apparatus, and in particular to an electron beam apparatus for evaluating a substrate (sample) having a minimum line width smaller than 0.1 μm with high throughput. The present invention further relates to an electron beam apparatus allowing a pattern on a wafer to be evaluated with high throughput and also to a pattern to be formed on the wafer with high throughput, even in a case that the wafer has a large diameter equal to or greater than 300 mmφ. The present invention further relates to a method for manufacturing devices using the same electron beam apparatus.
The present invention relates to a method for evaluating a wafer or a mask having a minimum line width equal to or smaller than 0.1 μm used in manufacturing a semiconductor device with high throughput, and also relates to a method for manufacturing a device using the same method. The present invention also relates to a method for inspecting a mask, specifically a stencil mask (slit transparent mask) or a membrane mask, having a pattern of minimum line width equal to or smaller than 0.1 μm used in manufacturing a semiconductor device with high resolution as well as high throughput, and further relates to a method for manufacturing a device by using the mask inspected by the same inspection method.
Recently, an electron beam has been introduced in the field of evaluation and/or formation of a pattern on a substrate. As for the equipment for emitting the electron beam, there has been known an electron beam apparatus employing an electron gun with a ZrO/W (tungsten zirconium oxide) cathode. In this type of electron beam apparatus, conventionally, a predetermined aperture is formed on an optical axis, through which the electron beam irradiation is directed onto the substrate. In such a case, an exhaust conductance can be reduced by employment of a minute size of aperture to thereby maintain an ultra-high vacuum condition in an electron gun chamber.
There is also a known technology aiming for improving the throughput in the pattern evaluation and/or the pattern forming, which is directed to forming a plurality of electron beams based on the electron beam emitted from the electron gun with the ZrO/W cathode. This technology has suggested a method for forming a total of a maximum of four electron beams from the consideration of the characteristic of the electron gun.
Further, the electron beam with energy as small as 10% of entire energy of the electron beam from the ZrO/W cathode can be made available during actual performance, such as scanning, owing to its inherent property, but the other parts of electron beam are typically left unused. On the other hand, it has been recognized that an electron beam from a cathode of carbide of transition metal, such as TaC, is not emitted in the direction along an optical axis but intensive electron beams are emitted exclusively in the four or eight directions out of the optical axis.
Further, a magnetic lens used in one type of electron beam apparatus that handles a plurality of electron beams has typically employed a magnetic lens with a plurality of optical axes passing through a central region in a plate having a circular outer contour.
In the prior art technology directed to a defect inspection apparatus of image projection type or a method for evaluating a pattern by using a multi-beam, there has been known an apparatus and a method that have employed an electromagnetic lens or an electrostatic lens as an objective lens. Further, a stencil mask inspection apparatus according to the prior art has a structure adapted to scan the back surface of a stencil mask with a single finely focussed electron beam, to detect electrons transmitted through the stencil mask and to thereby form a transmission image of the stencil mask so as to detect a defect in the stencil mask.